Ancient Skies - Vol 14 No 3 - 1987-88

Magazine Overview

Title: ANCIENT SKIES
Issue: VOLUME 14, NUMBER 3
Date: JULY-AUGUST, 1987
Publisher: ANCIENT ASTRONAUT SOCIETY

This issue of Ancient Skies, the Official Logbook of the Ancient Astronaut Society, features a cover story titled "GIANTS IN SOUTH AMERICA?" by Johannes Fiebag, translated by George T. Sassoon. The magazine explores the controversial topic of giants, drawing upon ancient texts, historical accounts, and physical evidence.

Giants in South America?

The lead article by Johannes Fiebag delves into the Book of Enoch, an apocryphal text from the Old Testament that was once highly regarded but later excluded from the biblical canon. Fiebag highlights passages describing the "fall of the angels" who mated with human women, resulting in the birth of giants or "monsters." He connects this to Genesis 6:1, 2, and 4, which mentions "sons of God" and "giants in the Earth in those days." The Book of Enoch further details the giants' destructive behavior, their consumption of resources, and their eventual punishment.

Fiebag then introduces a third tradition from South America, recounted by Garcilaso de la Vega in his "Royal Commentaries" (1609). This account describes giants who came from the sea and settled in the area of Cape St. Helena. These giants, described as exclusively male, dug deep wells, spoiled foodstuffs, and eventually resorted to unnatural intercourse due to a lack of women. The tradition states they were destroyed by a fiery punishment from Heaven, involving an angel with a shining sword, mirroring the biblical accounts of Sodom and Gomorrah and the destruction of the giants.

Fiebag argues that these traditions, despite their overlay of Christian interpretation, share common themes: a group of male giants, a lack of reproductive capability in the giants themselves, and a superior technical skill possessed by the giants, suggesting an extraterrestrial origin for their "fathers."

More on the Giants in the Earth in Those Days

This section presents evidence of ancient giants reported by Society members John Hoffmann and Pip Soller from South Africa. A giant footprint, discovered in 1912 in the Transvaal, is imbedded in granite and measures four and a quarter feet long, over two feet wide, and over seven inches deep. The footprint is a clear impression of a human left foot. Local tribesmen consider the site sacred, and the footprint is confirmed as authentic by police and geological experts.

The most startling aspect is the report that the *right* footprint is located in Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon), near the summit of Adam's Peak. Jan Coetzee believes these footprints are traces of a lost race of giants, calling it one of the world's greatest mysteries.

The article also includes a brief mention of the possibility that colossal statues in Egypt, like the seated Ramesses II, might depict the actual size of ancient personages, and that the enormous stone structures in Peru and Bolivia could have been built by giants, solving the mystery of how the stones were moved.

More on Mayan Archaeoastronomy

Helmut Zettl's article discusses the possibility that ancient Mayas used telescopes, citing examples of quartz lenses. He notes the presence of "gnomons" on Mayan temples, which could have been used for observing stellar parallaxes. Zettl highlights the Mayas' advanced calendars, including a Venus calendar and a season calendar. He references Dr. Johanna Broda's doctoral thesis on Maya calendars and the "Calendar Stone" at Copan, interpreted as an astronomical congress.

The article focuses on the archaeological site of Xochicalco in Mexico, which hosted a significant astronomical congress in the 8th Century AD for calendar reform. The site features the Great Pyramid of the Plumed Serpent, the Malinche Temple, and an observatory. The observatory has a hexagonal shaft that allows sunlight to illuminate a cave below on the summer solstice (June 22). Zettl mentions his discovery of a relief at the Malinche Temple depicting a priest astronomer reforming the calendar, and notes that Xochicalco was a meeting place for priests from various cultures, including Zapotec and Teotihuacan.

To the Editor

This section includes a letter from Chef Louis Szathmary, who received a catalog describing a book with a woodblock print from 1479 AD depicting a spaceship over Arabia. The print is described as clearly showing a bullet-shaped spaceship with rudimentary wings and portholes.

Recurring Themes and Editorial Stance

The recurring themes in this issue revolve around the existence and influence of giants in ancient history, positing them as potentially extraterrestrial in origin. The magazine also explores ancient technologies and astronomical knowledge, particularly concerning the Mayas. The editorial stance appears to be one of open inquiry into ancient mysteries, drawing connections between disparate ancient traditions and physical evidence to support the ancient astronaut hypothesis. The inclusion of diverse reports, from biblical texts to South American legends and modern-day discoveries, underscores a commitment to exploring unconventional interpretations of history and human origins.